68 – Laika’s Shittiest Heroine

Alexandra read the last three lines again.

Then a third time.

You are suffering from the Malediction of infinite hunger.

Augustus accepts your offering and blesses you with the Blood of the Verdant Lord.

Drain Life: Make a deal with Augustus, Demon of Blood (1/1).

Her stomach growled. Long. Insistent. She licked her lips.

She looked at the empty flask lying on the floor beside her, picked it up, and brought it to her eyes. The acidic taste was still coating her throat.

Fucking alchemist. Where the hell did he get something like that?

There was no doubt in her mind that the potion was responsible for the malediction. She had no idea what a malediction was, but it was obviously nothing good.

A malediction sounded like a curse, but worse. So she wagered it was the level above sicknesses.

She grimaced as her stomach reminded her of what it did. She’d have to ask Sera when she got the chance. For now, she understood that it made her hungry. Since it allowed her to digest the bloodline energy, it probably did more than that.

This isn’t going to help with the allegations.

Her appearance was already an issue, though it wasn’t as big a problem as she initially feared. Now with a bloodline…

She sat in the dirt of the greenhouse with vomit drying on her chin and looked at the empty patch where the Yshant had been. The formation lines were cold. Cael was dead.

The hunger hit again. Sharper.

“I need to eat something.”

She needed to stand up. She needed to find the others. She was aware of both of these facts but remained sitting.

She flipped the pages of her journal to the back, and found what she was looking for.

Blood of the Verdant Lord – Platinum Bloodline

Iron: Photosynthesis – The sun feeds you.

Bronze: Locked.

Silver: Locked.

Gold: Locked.

Platinum: Locked.

Blood of the Verdant Lord. She looked at the empty patch of dirt where the Yshant had stood.

She’d killed it. Destroyed it completely, not with her own powers, and through a process she didn’t truly understand. But the result was the same.

Photosynthesis – The sun feeds you.

She almost laughed. White hairs, missing finger, an eye permanently closed until she found a cure, a fucking malediction, and now this. It hadn’t even been three weeks…

Her stomach clenched. The hunger again.

She’d have to get to the surface before she could test it. It’d be great if it could help with the hunger.

She turned the pages again to read the descriptions of her new skills.

Drain Life – 1:

Drain the lifeforce of your target, replenishing your own.

Lifeforce drained cannot exceed the maximum capacity for your rank.
Each level increases the amount of lifeforce drained.

Each level improves conversion effectiveness.

Alexandra had to read it again to remember what it did. She’d written off the skill, thinking the price too high, but it turned out she’d been completely off the mark. The skill quest didn’t require her to trade her soul for Drain Life like she’d assumed.

Not sure this is much better…

She didn’t know the state of the city above. But the Yshant had to have killed a lot of people to rank up.

She bit her lip.

I should go help the others.

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Or not. In her current state, she’d be more hindrance than help. She could barely stand, and that was without mentioning the hunger. Each gurgle was painful.

Her eyes went down the page to see her final skill. This came as a surprise, but Giant Slayer had been directly added to her status without having to complete a skill quest. Then again, the event quest had been much harder than any daily she’d completed so far. She wasn’t going to complain.

Giant Slayer – 1:

This skill allows you to partially ignore rank suppression.

Each level increases the effect.

Rank suppression. The reason her skills were less effective against higher ranked opponents. It wasn’t absolute, nor was it insurmountable. But if she’d unlocked this skill earlier, maybe she could have landed a Dark Bolt on the Yshant while it was still Gold.

Maybe she could have saved Esmera.

She tried standing up. Her legs were shaking. She walked to her sickle. Picked it up. Strapped it to her belt. Once more, her eyes were drawn to what was left of Cael. She hadn’t known him. Which was better than when she killed John.

She sighed. Had she really killed Cael? Or was it more accurate to say he killed himself?

The difference mattered very little. He was dead.

But even as she kept telling herself that he deserved it, she didn’t feel better.

Another burst of pain shot through her stomach. So hungry.

Would Sera come to her help if she collapsed?